Description:
An epic, popular history of Ukraine, from an acclaimed, front-line war reporter, directly countering Putin's attempted erasure of Ukrainian identity.
Brief description: Illia Ponomarenko, the author of I Will Show You How It Was: The Story of Wartime Kyiv, is a Ukrainian journalist who has covered the war in eastern Ukraine since the conflict's earliest days, as well as Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine since 2022. Ponomarenko won the Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellowship and was selected to work as USA Today's guest reporter at the U.S. Department of Defense. He lives in Bucha, outside Kyiv.
Review Quotes:
"This exceptional chronicle of the struggles and persistent hope in Ukraine is a moving and eloquent testament to Ponomarenko's patriotism and to his country's extraordinary strength and resolve." --Booklist (Starred Review)
"The Kremlin's greatest lie is to claim Ukraine is not a real country, Ukrainians not a real people. For centuries that lie has spread across the world, enabling genocide and war. Here, one of the world's most important reporters corrects the record and reveals the story of his nation and his people." --Peter Pomerantsev, author of NOTHING IS TRUE AND EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE "An accessible history of Ukraine, from its founding myth to the present, abundant with vivid detail and told through the prism of today's existential war of independence. A must-read if you want to understand why Ukrainians keep fighting." --Yaroslav Trofimov, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of OUR ENEMIES WILL VANISH "You might not expect a war correspondent to write a history of his country. Yet this is the one to read if you want to understand Ukraine and why it refuses to disappear. Sweeping, lucid, and fiercely alive." --Dmytro Kuleba, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs